Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

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Topical issues of Christian-Muslim dialogue in Ukraine to be discussed in Lviv

The Civil Society Institute, a Crimean NGO, the Institute of Religion and Society of the Ukrainian Catholic University, the Muslim community “Hatice”are to hold a roundtable themed “Current issues of Christian-Muslim dialogue in Ukraine, a Lviv aspect” on February 26 in Lviv.

The event is held as part of the project “Newly-formed Crimeancommunity and Lviv community: understanding through dialogue”under the auspices of Renaissance International Foundation.

As organizers emphasize, the aim of this round table is to promote constructive dialogue between the Kırımlı and Lviv communities for better understanding and easiest adaptation and integration of immigrants, Crimean Tatars. For this purpose the representatives of Muslim and Christian communitiesalong with experts and public figures gathered at the roundtable.

Guests from Poland and Lithuania, including Lithuania Muslims Mufti Ramazan Haji Yakubauskas, professor of Warsaw University Eugeniusz Sakowicz, head of the Lithuanian Tartars’ community Haji Ramazan Yakubauskas shared their own experience of living as Muslims in member states of the European Union and their coexistence with the Christian communities.

According to organizers, due to the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea by Russia, thousands of representatives of indigenous people of Crimea - Kırımlı were forced to leave their homeland because of the threat of repression on grounds of political or religious beliefs. More than two thousand Crimean Tatars found refuge in Lviv and Lviv region, having arrived at the invitation of the public and local authorities.

As the organizers noted, although Lviv residents warmly received the IDPs from Crimea, their difference of mentalities, cultures, religions and traditions is quite noticeable. The fact that residents of the western regions of Ukraine people perceive the Kırımlı primarily as a politically active and pro-Ukrainian community, not as a different nation with their own history, culture and traditions. Because sometimes there is unfortunate misunderstanding at the popular level and at the level of government. On the contrary, often Tartars do not understand the differences between the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Crimea and Galicians, do not know the history and traditions of Galicia as a historical region of Ukraine.

In addition, there are forces that are trying to inflate interreligious, interethnic strife and discord. Thus, Lviv TV-channel 2 reported the appearance of cards with Islamophobic slogans in public transport.

Sincein a few years to come the Tartars will not be able return to their historical homeland, they settle in Galicia. Therefore, there is a need for a new dialogue between the community of Crimean Muslims, which is new for Lviv and Lviv region and respected members of the community of Lviv, which will help both communities to get to know each other.